Soundcraft Notepad 124

While Soundcraft 's Notepad line of compact mixers has recently been discontinued, it is a very popular mixer which is sure to survive its short longevity on Soundcraft 's production line due to its incredible value and usefulness in project studios and live applications.

At the heart of the Soundcraft Notepad is the acclaimed GB30 preamp, offering crisp, clean, low-noise preamplification and phantom power on four channels. In comparison with other low-end preamps, such as the popular Studio Projects VTB-1, RNC, and the GAP-73, the GB30 is extremely clean with very little coloration or noise, making it very well-suited for recording vocals and acoustic guitars. This is an incredible value, as the Notepad 124 can be found new for between $49 and $99, possibly less on the 2nd hand market, and can easily compete with just about any preamp in the $100-$300 price range.

The line-level inputs may be useful for recording keyboards, but the noise floor is not suited for electric guitars and basses,as the noise will be amplified too much by any distortion processing in-the-box.

Unfortunately, there are not separate outputs for each channel, only left and right, so it cannot take the place of more than two individual preamps. In a recording situation, this mixer is therefore only useful when recording one stereo or two mono tracks at a time. For an individual musician or producer, this is still an extremely convenient way to reap the benefits of the excellent GB30 preamps.